I went into this series with little to no expectations. I'd never seen anything relating to Gatchaman before and figured I might as well give this a try. The visuals are interesting, with fun use of CGI. Rather than trying to disguise it as regular animation as most series do, it instead used it to highlight that supernatural qualities of the cast of heroes and their enemies. This same technique was used to great effect in series like Tiger & Bunny and it works just as well here.

However, where Crowds truly shines is in its characters. The series goes out of its way to show just how flawed people are. How susceptible to mob mentality they can be. How petty and selfishly they act. But that's nothing special. There are hundreds of fantastic books that paint a far more striking picture of humanity's failings than this series could accomplish. What Crowds does is show what people are capable of. When disaster strikes they band together rather than falling apart. Crowds tells a story of how if you give people the opportunity to help they gladly will. Not just the heroes, but the type of person you walk past everyday. Average people with nothing to gain. Not for some noble or childish reason like friendship or a sense of duty, but simply because helping others can be fun. It's certainly not a deep or insightful moral for the story, but Crowds presents it in a delightful package.

That's not to say that this series is without faults. The dub is average at best and painful to listen to at worst. It's slow to start and the characters seem either dull or larger than life before the character development eventually kicks in. Worst of all, the “regular” ending (the one included on this blu-ray) doesn't completely conclude the story. If you can, find the director's cut of the final episode – an extended episode released a few months after the series finished airing that ties everything together.

Despite all this, the series is well-worth a watch. I highly recommend it.